Private Equity Moves In At Expereo

Private equity dollars earmarked for the internet infrastructure sector are increasingly getting spent over in Europe. Today the Carlyle Group announced it has not just invested in Expereo, but has taken a majority stake in the company.

Based in the Netherlands, Expereo offers managed network services in markets around the world, specializing in Ethernet and internet access aggregation. With the Carlyle Group on board they will have greater resources to fund their global expansion.

That could be via organic means of course, but I suspect that it is the inorganic possibilities that will be bubbling to the top in the near future. Expereo could be a pretty decent consolidation platform for assets, especially in Europe in the near future but elsewhere too of course. While I wouldn't expect them to go after fiber assets, a variety of potential targets related to cloud networking and security seem like they'd fit pretty well.

But in the short term, while the ownership has shifted dramatically the company itself will go on as it has. The company's founders retained a significant ownership position, and the current management team will remain in place.